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Clarington transformer called “dangerous precedent”

A “desktop” study of groundwater near a big transformer station in Clarington isn’t enough, says a water expert

Catharine Cole, left, and husband Clint Cole, second from left, shown against the anchor towers (background) on the site of planned Hydro One transformer station near their home in Clarington, Ontario, Tuesday, December 11, 2012. Neighbours Stan Kuzma, background left, Jim Sullivan, background second from left, Pedro Pelletier, background third from left, and Doug Taylor, background right, look on.
(Aaron Harris/Toronto Star) (Aaron Harris / For the Toronto Star)

Consultants hired by Hydro One to study the impact of a $296 million transformer station in Clarington did a “desktop study” of the impact on groundwater, town council has heard.

That’s not enough, says groundwater expert John Cherry, who says proceeding without detailed field study will set a “dangerous precedent” for other developments on the Oak Ridges Moraine.

Hydro One says its examination of the site went beyond the desktop survey.

The company is anxious to start work on the project by the end of the year, in order to complete it by a 2017 deadline.

The station will cover a 413-metre by 300-metre site on a 146-acre property where two major transmission lines intersect.

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The issue played out at a meeting of a Clarington council committee on Monday, where officials from Hydro One and its consultant Stantec appeared.

Hydro One has environmental approval to proceed with the transformer station, which it says will be needed to supply power to the Durham area once the Pickering nuclear station shuts down toward the end of the decade.

Local residents fear that transformer oil could spill, and leak into the wells they depend on, or into the deeper groundwater underlying the moraine.

They also have questioned whether a drainage system proposed by Hydro One will affect two nearby creeks.

In a recording of the meeting Councillor Joe Neal questions Stantec officials about the extent of on-the-ground research they did.

“You never did any scientific testing,” Neal said.

Stantec official Brant Gill said the firm looked at previous studies conducted on the moraine by the local conservation authority and others.

“We compiled all the information that was available for the site and we submitted that as effectively a desktop study,” Stantec’s Brant Gill said.

“That satisfied the requirements of the ministry of the environment, which also then led them to make one of their conditions that monitoring continue for the site.”

Cherry – who has proposed an extensive study of the area’s groundwater – told the meeting that Stantec’s approach was “superficial,” in large part because Hydro One didn’t ask for a more comprehensive report.

“Hydro One asked for and paid for what they got,” said Cherry, associate director of the G360 Centre for Applied Groundwater in Guelph.

Deep water-bearing formations on the site “have not been studied at all,” Cherry said.

“There are no boreholes on the transformer site studied to show what the geology and the flow is like.”

In an interview, Cherry said there is neither detailed knowledge of the site, nor adequate “big picture” research on the moraine’s groundwater to set a context.

Cherry said far more on-site investigation is needed – including drilling test wells five times deeper that Hydro One proposes.

Hydro One’s Brad Bowness told the meeting that the company will drill deeper monitoring wells if need be.

He said the company has a program to monitor wells of neighbours within 1,200 metres of the station, overseen by an independent third party.

Hydro One’s Tiziana Baccega Rosa said Wednesday that the Stantec study was a “compilation of all of the results of over 18 on-site field investigations by Stantec terrestrial ecologists, wildlife biologists, aquatic biologists and hydrogeologists.”

“During the environmental assessment process, Hydro One undertook many studies that included a number of on-site tests and field studies,” she said in an email.

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